Wild Horse Race Cheyenne Frontier Days

July 18 through 24, 2009

Wild Horse Race Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo Cheyenne, Wyoming

While this travel log is going to feature the Wild Horse Race at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo in Cheyenne I want to take a moment to give you some background.

We are staying at the campground on the Air Force Base in Cheyenne. It was $20 a night for full hookups and $10 a night for dry camping. Of the seven nights we were there we dry camped 3 of the days/nights. The place fills up for Cheyenne Frontier Days and Frontier Days is why we were in Cheyenne.

Frontier days consists of a 10-day celebration including parades, rodeos, carnival rides, top notch music on a daily/nightly basis, pancake breakfasts and professional bull riding. It is 10-days packed with action and more things to do than is possible to do. However, we did try hard to take it all in. We did miss things like behind the chutes tours and the free pancake breakfast held downtown several times while we were there. There was just NO way to get to a pancake breakfast held at some unholy hour close to dawn when we had only arrived back at the motorhome after a truly great night at the Outlaw Saloon. I will try to tell you more about the Outlaw Saloon a little later but it was a totally awesome honky tonk with great live music and a dance floor the size of most bars.

Wild Horse Race

Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo Cheyenne, Wyoming

The cowboys have to put a saddle on the horse ( or I guess they could try to ride it bare back -- none tried that) then mount the horse and ride it around the track and come back past the starting point. That may sound simple but trust me it isn't.

One cow boy in each group is in charge of getting the saddle on the horse that supposedly the other two cow boys have under control. In this picture the horse is on the ground ---- the only one that we saw on the ground and I guarantee you that it was only on the ground for a split second.

Wild Horse Race Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo Cheyenne, Wyoming

With 10-teams trying to subdue 10-wild horses the action was fast and furious to say the least. I snapped this picture but honestly do not remember watching them put the saddle on the horse. However, they were the first team to get their horse saddled and a rider in the saddle. Now that rider has to stay in the saddle and ride the horse around the arena track and back to this spot. Folks, I am here to tell you; that is a feat that is seldom accomplished. As hard as it is this cow boy actually was the only one that rode the horse around the arena track. This team won the event on this afternoon.

Wild Horse Race Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo Cheyenne, Wyoming

Here is another picture of that crew that had the horse on the ground in one of the above pictures. It appears that the saddle is on. Now they have to get it on TIGHT otherwise the rider isn't going to stay in the saddle, then the rider has to ride this wild thing around the arena. It did not happen.

In the bottom right corner of this picture you can see another horse and team. Note that they do not have a saddle in sight.

Wild Horse Race Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo Cheyenne, Wyoming

Ahhhh, these cow boys have the saddle on this horse's back but you will note that the strap is not connected to the other side. They have a LONG way to go before they get this saddle cinched up tight and a rider in the saddle.

Only one cow boy actually rode the horse around the arena and completed the event. The horses won the other nine contests.

Wow! Talk about an action packed few minutes. The event was not over until after every team had lost control of their horse ---- (none of the team members had a hold of the rope or were in the saddle) in other words the wild horse was running free. Then and only then was that team out of the contest.

As we exited the arena later in the day we walked beside a cowboy who was in this event. He was a big boy and limping in a bad way. We talked with him about the event as he hobbled along. He had come up to Cheyenne from south Arizona just to participate in this event. I think he was Native American --- dark complexion with jet black shiny hair and sparkling eyes. He told us there was NO way to practice for this event. He also said that he was hurt bad enough that he wasn't participating in the event again this year.

The next afternoon at least one cow boy was taken from the arena in an ambulance and several others needed to be removed by ambulance but were dragged to safe areas by rodeo staff or friends. On this night only one horse was ridden as well making it wild horses 9 cow boys 1 each time we saw the event.

This event alone was worth the price of admission. Like bull riding, this wasn't an event for panty waist, if you get my drift.

That is all there is.

Until next time remember how good life is.